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Tough lessons: how firms are using sport to accelerate social mobility

The Legal Social Mobility Partnership is broadening access to the profession

Linda Tsang

May 19 2016, 12:01am, The Times

Coaches and players from top sporting teams are training sixth-formers from non-traditional backgrounds in resiliencePaul Harding/Action Images

What do Harlequins FC, Leeds Rhinos, Manchester United, Wigan Warriors and Manchester City have to do with becoming a lawyer? Their coaches and players, including Mark Soden and former England international Jordan Turner-Hall, teach sixth-formers from non-traditional backgrounds about the resilience needed to achieve their goals, whether in the law — or elsewhere.

The clubs all participate in the Legal Social Mobility Partnership, which grew out of a joint initiative set up by Barry Matthews, director of legal affairs, ITV, and Slaughter and May in 2013. Its aim is to broaden access to the legal profession.

Why sport? “A lot of the students may have no interest in sport,” Matthews says, but see the relevance of the need to be resilient in applying to university…

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